memories and thoughts
by EclipseMaster
Summary: Greil's memories of the people he has met from when he was in the daien army until he is slain by the black knight, it will follow mostly canon, but there are some things that I fabricated myself
1. 24 years ago

Eclipsemaster I do not own fire emblem

this story is greil's memories of the people he has met from when he was in the daien army until he is slain by the black knight, it will follow mostly canon, but there are some things that I fabricated myself

24 years ago

"General Gawain! first lieutenant Zelgius reporting, sir." "Ah, yes, your my new aide." Gawain looked up from his desk at the young man standing in the door of his office. "You were assigned to General Bryce's command, were you not?" "Yes sir!" "Well, you come with very good recomendations then," replied Gawain, rising from his chair. "Come with me and I'll show you what all your duties comprise."

A half-hour later, the two men arrived at the parade ground. They stood watching the men practice with their weapons. "General, I have heard about your strength with the sword, would you permit me the honor of crossing blades with you?" "Certainly, I've heard that you're not too bad yourself, choose a sword" Gawain replied, gesturing towards and walking over to the weapons rack.

Both men picked up a sword and turned and faced one another. "Whenever you are ready" Gawain said, lifting his sword into a ready position. "With pleasure" replied Zelgius following suit. Gawain waited for his opponent to make the first strike, he blocked the stroke and retaliated with a blow of his own, and then settled back into a defensive position.

By this time quite a crowd had gathered around the two, watching as Zelgius tried to break down Gawain's defense. Gawain blocked a few more of Zelgius's strokes and then suddenly changed to the offensive, forcing Zelgius to divert all of his focus to defending himself from the many strikes Gawain rained down on him.

But it was to no avail. eventually the general's sword pierced his defense, and sent his sword ringing along the flagstones of the parade ground. A cheer went up from the men watching, but it was quickly subdued by Gawain's uplifted hand. "All right, thats enough, head back to your drills" he commanded, turning to look at Zelgius. "You did very well, you have quite a lot of skill with the sword." "Yes, but you still beat me" replied Zelgius, a slight look of chagrin on his face as he walked over and retrieved his sword from where it had landed.

"Yes, but I have had quite a few more years practice than you." Gawain said as the two men returned the swords to the rack "but you do have considerable talent, if taught properly you could match even me." He straightened and turned to face Zelgius. "I usually practice alone in the morning, but if you would be interested, then you could join me."

"That would be an honor sir!" the man replied. "I look forward to honing my skills against the greatest swordsman on Tellius!" Gawain gave a slight grin, "looks like my reputation has proceeded me" he joked. "But for now, we also have work to do, we'll start with your training tomorrow."

AN/ anyways heres the first chapter of the story Read and Review or goblins will eat you


	2. 23 years ago part 1

reeeaalllly sorry for the long wait till I updated the story, but what with rewriting this chapter(I hated the first draft) researching characters and events(I didn't realize just how much information I would need for this story) and general life(nuff said) this chapter kinda took a long time to put together

sidenote/I went back to chapter one and fixed the punctuation problem, hopefully I got everything.  
thanks to lolcano and gunlord500 for reviewing the first chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own fire emblem

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23 years ago (part 1)

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The familiar clash of steel on steel rang out in the courtyard as, once again, Gawain disarmed Zelgius. Both men stopped and wiped the perspiration off their foreheads. "You've gotten very good, I've been pushing myself hard just to keep ahead of you, I believe you could defeat any of the other knights here," Said Gawain. "Yes, but never once in the year that we have been training together, have I defeated you," came the reply from Zelgius.

"No, but you have forced me to get much better, why, if I had stayed at the skill level I was at one year ago, when we met, you would beat me to pieces," complimented Gawain. "Ah well, one of these days I will beat you and then I will be the greatest swordsman in Tellius," replied Zelgius. "You very well might, but don't think I'm going to just stand still and let that happen, if you want to beat me you'll have your work cut out for you," was Gawain's return.

"Nor would I expect you to, if you did, it would be a shallow victory indeed," said Zelgius, retrieving his sword and returning it to its sheath. The two were interrupted by the arrival of Tauroneo and Lanvega.

"I would like to test your theory on his skill," said Lanvega, as he walked up to where they were standing. "I would be most happy to accept your challange," replied Zelgius, drawing his sword from the sheath where it had been placed only seconds ago.

"This should be an interesting match," said Tauroneo, as the two positioned themselves for their fight, "Lanvega has wanted to test Zelgius for quite some time now, to see if he is strong enough to take over his position as rider." "Yes, good old Vega has wanted to retire ever since he injured his arm, he's still very skilled, but no longer at the top of his game, and I know he feels that the riders should be flawless" replied Gawain.

"So, what are your thoughts on this plague that has come upon Daein," asked Tauroneo, as the fight progressed. "It has only been two weeks and already some 15,000 people have died, including four of the royal family, the king has lost his wife and two eldest sons, along with his brother," replied Gawain, "none of the healers can do anything to stop it, and it progresses so rapidly that there is almost no warning before they are infected."

"Hopefully, Begnion doesn't decide that now would be a good time to try to take back their former province," Tauroneo said. "Well, they have been peaceful so far under Misaha, I doubt that the senators will be able to mobilize the military before we would hear about the invasion, so we should have enough time to mount an ample defense," was Gawain's reply.

"True, and what with the four of us riders, Zelgius and prince Ashnard, we could probably stop any force that they put out with just the six of us," said Tauroneo. "Speaking of Begnion, some of their best healers are over at Palmeni Temple trying to figure out if there is any way to slow the plague, I'm supposed to head there tomorrow to check on their progress," said Gawain.

At that moment Zelgius deflected Lanvega's lance and rammed his shoulder into his opponent, knocking the rider off-balance, he finished it up by slamming the hilt of his sword into the side of Lanvega's helmet, which knocked the rider to the ground.

They immediately ran over to where Lanvega lay on the ground and helped him to his feet. "I guess you were right about his skill," said Lanvega, shaking his head, "he is strong enough to carry the title of rider." "Indeed, good thing you were wearing your helmet or you would have to go see the healers," commented Tauroneo.

"True that," said Gawain, giving Lanvega a friendly nudge in the side, "now we can finally buy you that rocking chair." "Very amusing Gawain," replied Lanvega, returning the favor, "I'm not that old, its just that the riders are the pride of Daein, and as such they should be the best that there is."

"We know old boy," said Tauroneo, giving throwing his arm around his friend, "We're only jerking your chain cause we'll miss you once your gone." Lanvega gave an exasperated sigh, "you make it sound as if I'm dying." He turned to face Zelgius, "now you know what you'll have to deal with once you join this unruly bunch."

"Oh, I don't know about that," said Zelgius, a look of fake confusion on his face, "they seem pretty tame to me." "There, you see," said Gawain "he's perfect, why he'll make a great rider." "True, true," said Tauroneo, "but all joking aside, his succession probably won't happen until things become more stable."

At that they all became serious again, as their minds turned back to the troubles that faced Daein. "Aye, his majesty is taking the death of his wife, brother and sons badly, if the other two were to die, I don't know if he would be able to bear the strain," said Lanvega.

"Hopefully the researchers at Palmeni Temple have found some way of combating the disease," said Gawain "I am to head up there tomorrow and check on their progress." "I assume that I will be joining you," said Zelgius, "yes, we'll be leaving early in the morning so get a good nights sleep," replied Gawain.

"Well, I'm sure you have things to do before you leave, so we won't take up anymore of your time," said Tauroneo. "Well, are you ready?" Lanvega asked Tauroneo as Gawain and Zelgius left the courtyard. "Are you sure you want to fight me after your fight with Zelgius?" asked Tauroneo, "I TOLD YOU STOP TREATING ME LIKE I'M OLD!"

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AN/ so yeah that seemed like a good place to end the chapter, it will probably be pretty slow until I get the story further along since this is only my second fanfic(the first being written when I was 15). Reviews are greatly appreciated as they are the fuel for my writing engine since they let me know that there are people waiting for me to update the story


	3. 23 years ago part 2

So a lot has happened since my last post which contributed towards making me take so long to update. First I cut the back of my hand on a grinder and had to get seven stitches which put me off my schedule for almost a month, and then I had trouble getting back into it and writing the part how I wanted it, in fact I hadn't planned on splitting this but this chapter is already the size of the first two, and I haven't posted in a loooong time(so please don't throw hard things at me)

SPECIAL THANKS TO! Lolcano and Hannabannaonthesavanna(why so long name?) for their reviews and encouragement and also to my Guest reviewer for my first requested story

SPECIAL NOTE: I corrected my mistake of names, so Laura is now Elena. My only defense is that I was worrying over this chapter and that I haven't played the game in a while.

23 years ago (part 2)

The next day, Gawain rose early as he had said he would. Donning his armour, he strapped his sword to his back and slipped the missive from the king into a slot inside his armour designed to hold vulneraries and other such things. Having finished his preparations, he walked to the stables.

Zelgius was waiting for him. Gawain walked up to the stablemaster, "is Orion ready?" he asked. "Yes sir! I'll bring him out for you," the man said. He went in and came out a few moments later leading a magnificent black horse. A stablehand followed, bringing out Zelgius's horse.

They mounted their horses and rode out of the castle. They rode in silence for half an hour, the only sound was the trotting of the horses hooves until Zelgius broke the silence. "I heard you talking with general Tauroneo about the plague," he began. "What with the irregularity of it, it's fortunate that none of the riders have been infected."

"True, hopefully a cure can be found for the plague, if it keeps up the results could be catastrophic in many ways, not in the least being the threat from Begnion if our military loses too many men." Zelgius nodded his head, "unfortunately the majority of the power lies with the senators."

"Yes, the apostle wants peace, but the senators have been arguing rather heatedly, probably the only reason they haven't really made any moves is that the apostle is so popular with the people." "Well, at least not all of the senate is totally corrupt, the prime minister does help stem the tide, speaking of, isn't he at palmeni?" asked Zelgius.

"Yes, he and some other healers were on their way to confer with the priests at palmeni temple about a disease in Begnion when the plague struck, so they decided to stay and try to figure out a cure for it," said Gawain. "I find it hard to believe that the prime minister would come here just to ask about a disease" replied Zelgius. "Well, from what i've heard he's kind of a wild cannon, he often goes off for periods of time but never too long, so he probably has something else planned," said Gawain.

"He sounds like an interesting man," said Zelgius thoughtfully, "I would be interested to talk with him." "Well, I've never met him personally, so I am also curious as to what he is like," replied Gawain with a slight smile, "rumour only goes so far as to desribe the truth." "Well, we'll find out when we get there, so keep your fingers crossed, aye," Zelgius said.

"And what exactly am I keeping them crossed for?" Gawain queried. "Well there are several things, first being a cure for the plague, second, that the P.M. is the loose cannony type of fellow, and third that we don't end up as collateral damage for the plague, though arguably, the third is probably closer to being first."

"Ah, I see," said Gawain. The two lapsed back into silence as they rode, admiring the scenery and the rising sun. "Heh, funny, isn't it," snorted Gawain. "What?" asked Zelgius curiously. "This," said Gawain, gesturing around them at the beauty of the forest in the light of the rising sun. "Hard to tell that there is a plague when you're out here in the middle of nature."

Zelgius nodded. "It makes you think of what is really important in your life," he said, "learning to understand and cherish what you have and forgetting the petty things that you have been chasing after." He paused, "when I first arrived under your command a year ago my goal was to simply get stronger, to prove that I was better than anyone else in the army, but you gave me something worth fighting for, other than myself, I just wanted to thank you."

Gawain gave a half smile. "I know what you're talking about," he said, "I felt the same way when I was first training under my father, but over the years I realized that my power should be used to protect my country, not raise myself up to lord over others."

"Well, anyway, I just wanted to thank you for training me, and treating me as an equal, as a friend, I have never properly thanked you for that before, and I wanted to tell you that." said Zelgius.

"In the year that I have known you, I have come to think of you as more of a brother than a friend," said Gawain honestly, "and soon if all works out, you will no longer be my aide, but my equal, both in strength and in heart, and I am glad that I could be a part of the making that happen."

"I could undoubtedly strive to be your equal for my entire life and never quite attain it," replied Zelgius, "you have, and always will have my respect general Gawain." He lifted his hand in a salute, "and now let us enjoy the rest of our two hour long trip."

They arrived at Palmeni Temple two hours later. Dismounting their horses, they put them in the small stable that accommodated the temples service donkeys. After taking care of the horses, they entered the temple. The clerk at the desk looked up from his work at the sound of their footsteps. "Ah, general Gawain, the bishop and the prime minister are in the in the main office."

"Thank you," said Gawain, nodding his head. They walked down the main corridor towards the office. The office had two large ornately carved wood doors which opened into an 20x20 room. The walls were covered by walnut bookshelves filled with an assortment of books, and off on one side of the room there was a small table with two chairs on either side. In the center of the room stood a desk made of the same material as the shelves with two chairs in front of it and one slightly larger one behind it.

Seated on the larger chair was the head bishop, who was engaged in conversation with the other occupant of the room, a raven haired man sitting in one of the smaller chairs in front of the desk. Both men looked up as Gawain and Zelgius walked into the room. "Oh, general Gawain, we haven't quite finished our work, it should be done in about two hours," said the bishop.

"Ah, general, I don't believe we've met," said the other man, rising to face them. "I am the prime minister of Begnion, Sephiron, though I do wish we could have met under better circumstances," he said with a slight bow. "It is a pleasure to be sure," replied Gawain returning the gesture. "This is my aide and our newest rider candidate, Lieutenant Zelgius."

"It is an honor to meet you," replied Zelgius with a bow. "I would guess that if he is a candidate for the position among the riders that he could also be called your apprentice," said Sephiron to Gawain. "You would guess correctly," replied Gawain "I have been training him and he looks to be this generations greatest rider, he is very skilled with his blade and fully capable of handling the role with honor and chivalry."

"That is indeed fortunate for Daein" said the bishop. "We have need for the younger generation to step up and take over the roles that our generation is starting to outgrow, and now gentlemen if you will excuse me I need to get back to overseeing the work." "Very well then," said Gawain, "I have some things that I wanted to check in the library before anything else so I will either be here or there when you have finished."

"And I would very much like to talk with your up and coming rider," said Sephiron gesturing towards Zelgius, "but I would also like to talk with you later, general, if you have the time." "Well, we have two hours to wait, I quite seriously doubt that it will take me that long to find what I needed." replied Gawain turning at the door.

He left the office and proceeded to the library. This rooms doors were not quite so ornate as the office doors, unadorned oak with a simple carving of the word 'library' in the ancient langauge. Inside the doors, the contents of the room were not quite so humble. The library of Palmeni Temple was renown throughout Telius, rivaling even the great library of Begnion with its store of arcane and literary knowledge.

Gawain stepped into the room and took a few minutes to simply walk around in the upper level of the library. Large stained glass windows allowed light to illuminate the library during the day, and hung on the ceiling were lanterns to light the room for nighttime use. Descending into the lower levels of the library, Gawain searched for several minutes before he found the book that he was looking for.

Twenty minutes later he returned the book, having obtained the information that he needed. returning to the upper level of the library he found that it was no longer unoccupied. The girl was sitting in one of the tables set near the windows. She had her back towards him and all he could see of her was her blue hair.

She looked up in surprise at the sound of his footsteps on the floor. "Oh, are you general Gawain?" she asked. "Yes, though I don't have the fortune to know yours," he replied. "Oh, I'm sorry, I am Elena." "A lovely name." he said, "though I must say, you look tired." "Yes, I was just finished taking care of some plague victims, and I like to come here to read and relax." "So what book is that," asked Gawain, pointing to the book held in her hands."

"Oh, this is about the different tribes of Laguz," she replied. "Well that's interesting," he said. "What is?" she asked. "Oh, just the fact that you refer to them as Laguz rather than sub-humans like most Daeins." "Well, I fail to see why I should be prejudiced against them simply because they're different," she said defiantly. "And I didn't say that you should." was his reply, "I just said that it was interesting."

"So what is your stance on the matter?" she asked. "I find that most people make claims without bothering to actually make sure that they are correct, but my stance would be the same as yours," he replied. "Having actually researched the fact, they are as you say simple different than us, but in no way inferior, though I have never met one."

"Well it would seem that I have judged you unfairly," she replied, a look of chagrin on her face. "It's just that I get so frustrated when people believe things simply without fact." "Yes, well don't let it bother you too much," replied Gawain, "If things go well with the apostle then people may finally see the truth about them."

"Yes, the prime minister was talking about that with me a few days ago," she said. "So is that what sparked your interest in them?" he inquired. "Well, somewhat" she replied, "I had read about them before but when the prime minister came he had such an interesting view of them." "Interesting," mused Gawain, "I would be very interested to hear his take on it, speaking of the man I should probably get back, it was nice to make your acquaintance." "It was nice to meet you too," she replied with a small wave.

AN/Yeah, you heard my excuses for being late, hopefully I can get the next chapter out soon. But in the meantime, R and R folks


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